According To This Fan Theory, Banksy Shredding Iconic Painting Might Actually Be A Huge Prank

UK'S most controversial and talked-about street artist, Banksy, left people shocked during London Sotheby’s auction of his 2006 spray-paint 'Girl With Balloon.' Just after the bid was called, an alarm sounded inside the frame and the painting started to shred to pieces in front of the audience who were left speechless.

While some said that theself-destruction the 'ultimate expression of anarchy,' others suspect that it might just be the biggest prank of the century.

In an interview with the Bored Panda, Josh Gilbert, an artist and blacksmith from Chicago, said that he re-watched the video several times and froze it in parts just to understand the shredding mechanism.

And Gilbert is almost sure that it was all a hoax.

This is his explanation:

Those are pretty clearly x-acto blades attached to a piece of wood [...]. Presumably they are what is doing the actual "shredding". [...] but... they're mounted SIDEWAYS. You can see that there is no way these blades would cut canvas [...] mounted that way.

But you can see the blades are actually NOWHERE NEAR where the painting sits.

They're almost entirely towards the BACK of the painting. This would only really make sense if that was where the painting was going to come out [...] why would you put the blades there and have the painting come out of the front*

Then there's this YouTuber who made a miniature version of Banksy's self-destructing artwork.

While shredding was an intentional decision by the artist, the painting may now be worth double what it sold for. It’s not a “Girl with Balloon” prints, but a rare Banksy performance piece.